SHAHEEN-PORTMAN BACKERS LOOK FOR PATH BACK TO SENATE FLOOR: Supporters of stalled energy efficiency legislation are redoubling their efforts to bring the bill back to the Senate floor. In an effort to prove to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that the bill has a strong chance of passage, the legislation’s supporters, both in the Senate and off Capitol Hill, are working behind the scenes to win the buy-in of more Republican lawmakers. Two Senate aides familiar with the negotiations told Andrew Restuccia yesterday that the bill’s authors, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Rob Portman, are open to incorporating some non-controversial and bipartisan amendments into the underlying bill in an effort to secure additional Republican support and ensure it receives at least 60 votes. Andrew’s story: http://politico.pro/189QYks

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Measure gets key House Republican’s support: Shaheen-Portman apparently has gained at least one important backer in the House: Rep. Ed Whitfield, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s energy and power panel. "Anytime we talk about efficiency we're all up there hugging and holding each other," Whitfield said yesterday, according to SNL. "So we're waiting on the Senate bill to come over, and I think we're ready to move the bill. We've got some Democrats and Republicans working on some good efficiency measures." SNL: http://bit.ly/1a5MTEH

HEADS UP — EPA DATA INDICATE CARBON EMISSIONS FROM POWER PLANTS DOWN: Carbon emissions from power plants dropped a stunning 10 percent between 2010, when EPA started collecting facility-by-facility data on greenhouse gases, and 2012, the agency will report today. One of the biggest reasons is a trend away from coal and toward natural gas. The news will come when EPA issues its third round of annual greenhouse gas information collected from more than 8,000 facilities in 2012. Those include power plants — the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and the target of controversial upcoming EPA regulations. Erica Martinson has details for Pros: http://politico.pro/162XuwY

GREENS SHAKE THINGS UP, BUILDING PRESSURE ON SODA COMPANIES: The Sierra Club is running ads in USA Today this week that call on Coca-Cola and Pepsi to end their reliance on fuel derived from Canadian oil-sands crude when shipping their products around the U.S. “Shipping soda to store shelves takes a lot of oil — in fact the soda industry is one of the biggest oil users in the United States,” say the ads, which were provided to POLITICO. Sierra and other groups are calling on Pepsi and Coke to use their status as major U.S. companies to alter their contracts with fuel and transportation providers to require that their fuel comes from refineries that do not rely on oil sands. Andrew Restuccia has more for Pros: http://politico.pro/1gEfxQX

ENERGY INFLUENCE: In case you missed it, Pros yesterday got the latest on campaign finance and lobbying in the energy world. In this new edition, we check in on the Senate races of Mary Landrieu, Shelley Moore Capito, Mark Warner and more; look at why TransCanada’s lobbying spending is up but the American Wind Energy Association’s is down; and find out why the Environmental Defense Fund has delisted itself as a lobbying entity. Pros can read it here: http://politico.pro/179fNBx

BIG MONEY TO COUNTY ELECTIONS: Via the AP: “An unprecedented amount of outside money is pouring into local elections in Whatcom County, Wash., including $50,000 from Wyoming-based Cloud Peak Energy. The donations might shape whether the area becomes home to the largest coal shipping terminal on the West Coast. … An environmental political action committee, which has gotten a chunk of its money from a California billionaire, has given $224,000 to back candidates they believe are opposed to the project.” AP: http://bit.ly/HeabfA

EPA KICKS OFF LISTENING SESSIONS FOR POWER PLANT RULE: EPA will hold its first two listening sessions today to get public comment on its forthcoming emissions rule for existing power plants, in New York City and Atlanta. (Previously scheduled meetings in Boston and Philadelphia were postponed because of the shutdown). Meanwhile, representatives from Environment New York, Environment Georgia and other green groups have news conferences planned to push for strong emissions limits.

Synergy: Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations panel will hold a hearing next Tuesday on how EPA regulations threaten coal-reliant communities: http://1.usa.gov/189alKG. The hearing is the same day as a Capitol Hill rally organized by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity: http://bit.ly/1aENtEu

McCARTHY, DURBIN MEET: EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Marty Durbin, president and CEO of America's Natural Gas Alliance, met for the first time as heads of their respective organizations yesterday, according to an ANGA spokesman. (Durbin previously worked at the American Petroleum Institute before taking over at ANGA earlier this year). “They're both interested in maintaining an open and constructive dialogue as we work together to ensure that natural gas continues to be produced safely while providing economic and environmental benefits,” ANGA spokesman Dan Whitten said. “I understand there also was spirited talk about the World Series outcome since Marty is a lifelong Cardinals fan while the administrator is clearly all in for the Red Sox.”

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CANADIAN EMBASSY HOSTS ENERGY SECURITY FORUM: The Canadian Embassy is playing host this morning to a "North American Energy Security Dialogue." Participants include Republican Reps. Doc Hastings, Ed Whitfield, Lee Terry, Cory Gardner and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and representatives of the Association of Oil Pipelines and the Canadian Association of Oil Producers. The shindig is sponsored by the Consumer Energy Alliance, the Canadian Natural Resource Alliance, the Canadian embassy, Capital Power and TransCanada. Another forum is scheduled for late November in Vancouver.

Turns out Al Gore and Ed Whitfield can agree on one thing: Neither thinks President Barack Obama is going to approve Keystone XL. “I don’t know what the president is going to do," Gore told The Daily Ticker. "If I had to bet, I would bet that he disapproves it.” http://yhoo.it/1fSEA1p. Whitfield is also down on the pipeline’s prospects: "I don't think the president's going to approve the thing," Whitfield said yesterday. "I don't really think he will." SNL: http://bit.ly/1a5MTEH

MORE ‘INNOVATION’ KEY TO DEVELOPING LOW-CARBON ENERGY, ITIF SAYS: The best way to boost clean energy and address climate change is not by pushing for subsidies or a price on carbon, but rather by instituting a "robust global clean energy innovation strategy" that will lower the price of low-carbon technology, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation says in a report out today. “Policymakers should consider the full spectrum of innovation policies to develop and deploy next-generation technologies and recognize the limitations of the technologies widely available today,” the report says. “This specifically includes greatly expanding public investment in early-stage clean energy innovation, such as basic science, R&D, and demonstration projects of a range of low-carbon and zero-carbon technologies.” The report: http://bit.ly/H0HC4A

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MOVER, SHAKER: Energy and Enterprise Initiative, the Bob Inglis-led group focused on "free-enterprise solutions" to climate and energy issues, has hired Audra Achiu as its operations manager, based out of the group's Washington office. Achiu was previously a legislative assistant for Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) and will lead the Initative's event programming around the U.S.

COURT TOSSES CHALLENGE TO WYOMING WIND PROJECTS: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit yesterday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group of landowners looking to block the construction of two wind farms in Wyoming. The Northern Laramie Range Alliance argued that the two planned wind farms should be considered one project — and thus the local utility would not be required to purchase power from those projects under the 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act. But the court said the Alliance doesn’t have standing to sue because it wasn't able to prove that an increase in electricity rates (which, the court added, the Alliance failed to prove was connected to the wind projects) couldn't be traced to the decision that the projects qualified for the benefit, or that a ruling in the group's favor would provide relief. The ruling: http://1.usa.gov/17GHiPj

NOT THE RULE’S BIGGEST FAN: The Energy Department issued a request for information yesterday regarding its draft rule to increase ceiling fan energy efficiency. Pros will remember Rep. Marsha Blackburn made the fan efficiency rule one of the more interesting debates ( http://politico.pro/16r3QbM) of the energy and water appropriations process this summer over the proposal.

— Cape Wind's developers say they expect to wrap up the last lawsuits delaying the project by the end of the year and thus qualify for the expiring production tax credit. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/188PtDm

— Michigan's senators want Secretary of State Kohn Kerry to pressure a Canadian utility to reconsider a plan to store nuclear waste underground near the Great Lakes. AP: http://bit.ly/1eI102g

— Canadian authorities have increased their spill estimates from the July Lac-Megantic disaster. Montreal Gazette: http://bit.ly/H7Q0zv

— The Tennessee Valley Authority's inspector general says a contractor overbill the utility by $2.2 million for cleanup of a coal ash spill. Knoxville News-Sentinel: http://bit.ly/16rI7R7

— Federal pipeline regulators spend more time at industry conferences than dealing with spills and other incidents, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says. Huffington Post: http://huff.to/1eHYuJn

THAT’S ALL FOR ME. See you tomorrow.

** A message from POWERJobs: New jobs on our radar this week: Senior Manager, Energy at Accenture, Director, Chemical Products Technology at American Chemistry Council and Director of Government Affairs at National Small Business Association. Interested? Apply to these jobs and more at www.POWERJobs.com. Powered by names you trust — POLITICO, WTOP, WJLA/ABC-TV, NewsChannel 8 and Federal News Radio — POWERJOBS has top-level job opportunities in the Washington area from the area’s most powerful employers.And mark your calendars for Wednesday, Oct. 30 at noon for a POWERJobs Twitter chat on the do’s and don’ts of networking. Join using the hashtag #POWERChat. **

** A message from Vet Voice Foundation: Tens of thousands of service members and veterans rely on public lands to hunt, fish, camp and heal from the wounds of war. These lands are part of the American heritage we fought for. As a new President and Congress look to rebuild America's infrastructure, we call on them to make an equal investment in maintaining our public lands and parks for our service members and all Americans. Support for our veterans must extend to investing in and protecting America’s natural heritage, for our children and grandchildren. www.VetVoiceFoundation.org **

Authors:

About The Author

Alex Guillén is an energy reporter for POLITICO Pro, where he covers EPA, regulations and coal, as well as lobbying and campaign finance in the energy realm. He previously wrote the Morning Energy newsletter. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., with a degree in anthropology and English. He is an avid reader and TV binger. The Delawarean, thrilled that there are finally Capriotti’s outposts in Washington, lives in Alexandria, Va.